Women Heros as Disney Princesses- Interesting or Disturbing?

Artist David Trumble depicts women leaders from Hilary Clinton to Harriet Tubman as a Disney princess in an attempt to satirically comment on the "Disneyfication" of women. Check out the art on the link below! Thoughts?


http://www.takepart.com/photos/disney-princess-made-into-feminist-heroes?cmpid=tp-ptnr-upworthy

My Thoughts 

I think the artist's project is interesting, but inaccurate. Disney never depicts strong women as "cutesy" (with the exception of Merida). If Hilary Clinton was a Disney character, she'd probably be a villain. Not because she's in anyway evil or malicious, but because she's an older, powerful woman and Disney's typical portrayal of powerful, older women is less than favorable. Disney's typical depiction of strong women and older women is much more "hag-ish". If a female Disney character isn't cute, nice, and sweet, she's older, cruel, and snappy.  This reminded me of Roberta Trites' article "Disney's Subversion of the Little Mermaid", specifically her thoughts on the changes made to the sea-with in the Disney version. As Trites says, mature women, such as Urusula, are associated with "images of predation". Disney must always have an "evil older woman" to balance out its "young, innocent" princess. Older women and women of power have very negative representations in Disney.  If a woman is in a higher position than a man in a Disney film than she is a villain and the man (or men) are her oafish hench people. This happens time and time again- Yzma and Kronk in The Emperor's New Groove, Cruella Deville and Jasper and Hoarce in 101 and One Dalmations, the Queen in Snow White and her guard. Disney seems to be improving in this aspect with Brave. The queen is a strong woman yet she is still depicted as kind and caring, BUT all the men around her are oafs. Her husband is silly and the other clan leaders are silly. A real step in progress will be made when Disney has a movie containing a strong, but caring female character on equal footing with, or on a higher level than, a male character who is also intelligent and capable. It should not be that a woman can only be in charge, can only handle a group, when the men around her are pretty much incapable of doing so.

So, while this project is interesting, cute is just not an adjective Disney affords strong women.

Cover Photo: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/disney-princesses-face-real-life-issues-article-1.1420331